High School Heights
by HAVE H33ART
Summary: Basic High School fic, includes 4 stories at once, including Edge, AJ Styles, Kaz, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs, The Beautiful People, Tiffany, Becky Bayless, Jack Evans, Kelly Kelly, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Brian Kendrick & OC
1. Chapter 1

"Here you are…Cayden" the woman behind the desk wrinkled her nose slightly before handing over a crisp piece of paper to the small brunette. "Maybe next year you can try to be on time on the first day of school, same goes for you Mr. Aries."

"and why exactly would we want to do that?" the young man remarked putting his arm around his girlfriend of nearly a year.

"Well I see the summer hasn't changed you one bit" Austin smirked at the office secretary, "most would consider that a good thing." Cayden let a crooked smile sneak through, laughing at her boyfriends sharp wit.

"Get to class, you two" the pair made their way out of the office. "This year's all about me and you, Cay" she smiled and kissed him before they went their separate ways, each going to their first class of the day.

Madison Rayne applied one last coat of lip gloss in the bathroom mirror as she stood alongside her best friends.

"It's almost depressing each year when all the hot upperclassmen graduate and a swamp of slimy little babies come into the freshmen class." Lacey Von Erich giggled "maybe Kelly has the right idea, dating a college guy and all, plus, Chris is beyond cute."

Madison and Velvet both rolled their eyes at the mention of Kelly' s name, to them she was just a wannabe sophomore, but maybe Lacey had a point, dating an older guy would be great for their image.

"Lets go girls" Madison snapped as she closed her purse and exited the ladies room, closely followed by Lacey and Velvet.

"Ladies" Alex Shelley nodded to the trio exiting the bathroom, the three scoffed in unison looking the other direction. "Give it up man, they're way outta your league." Alex's best friend and band mate, Chris Sabin spoke.

"I don't see you with any girls" he remarked, glaring at his friend for the comment. A small smile crept across Chris' face as he thought about his secret crush.

"Well…" Alex waited for a reply, slightly smirking at his friends discomfort, "Listen man," Chris started but couldn't think of the words to get out of this one, he didn't want to confess to Alex that he thought he had actual feelings for a girl. He and Alex spent all summer partying together and hooking up with girls, why ruin it just because he suddenly has a little crush.

"I'm just looking for the perfect girl" was the best he could come up with. "Sure dude" Alex rolled his eyes a little bit before spotting the sight in front of him, "hey, check it out." He leaned his friend in the direction of a bent over Becky Bayless. "Talk about your perfect girl" Chris' heart sunk when he heard Alex ogling over the object of his affection. The pair met the young sophomore when she was only in 8th grade dating one of their best friends, Jimmy Jacobs, but my, had she grown since the 8th grade.

"Looking good Becky" Chris rolled his eyes hearing Alex hit on the younger girl. She looked up and smiled, practically making Chris' stomach flutter just by showing her teeth, her lovely teeth.

"Hey boys, I haven't seen you since the concert." Over the summer the boys had attended a 311 show with Becky and Jimmy as his last try to get back together with his former partner. The night didn't go as planned for Jimmy, but Chris did realize that night that Becky couldn't be any more perfect for him.

"Yeah well, we've been busy with the band" Alex said coolly, clearly trying to impress the girl in front of them. Chris saw it has his chance to get some time with Becky, even though it meant Alex and the rest of the boys would be there too, "We practice every Thursday after school, come by sometime if you want"

"Sounds cool" Becky replied before the bell rang, "Well, I gotta go, I'll see you guys around"

"Don't tease me" Alex licked his lips as she walked away from the duo, Chris listened to her heels click loudly down the hall, "Oh, the things I would do to that girl" Alex licked him lips before speaking up again, "nice pick up man, we make a good team y'know"

_Stuck here another year_, Adam sighed. He should have graduated last year with all of his friends but instead he's trapped in this wretched place, yet again. At least he wasn't a total loser though, after all, he was captain of the hockey team, a position he couldn't get last year due to his best friend, Christian earning the spot.

"What's up, Adam?" two voices said simultaneously. The tall blonde looked up from his desk to see two of his teammates walking in to the art class. "AJ, my man" Adam fist pounded the younger boy, "Frankie" he smiled acknowledging the second man. The two boys were a force to be reckoned with on the ice, each of them earning their own nickname from the former captain. AJ being called "The Phenomenal One" due to his speed and accuracy in the game, and Frankie earned the nickname "Suicide" by constantly taking dives on the ice.

The three seniors talked about their favorite sport until the bell rang and the rest of the class filed in and took their seats, including a very cute blonde in a _very_ short skirt. He glanced over at her and saw her sending him a flirty smile. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.

A loud beep was heard threw the classroom during the middle of class. "A cell phone? In my class?" Ms. McCool slowly turned around from the whiteboard.

Cayden turned in her seat, knowing it was defiantly her cell phone. She looked outside the classroom door, only to spot Austin signaling her to come out into the hallway. She sighed before facing the strict teacher, still waiting for an answer.

"It was mine, ." Cayden stood up, grabbing her purse. As she swung the bag over her shoulder she pulled the small phone out of the pocket, opening it quickly.

_Feel like ditching? – Aus_, "Yup" Cayden gave an apologetic stare to the young teacher, "Don't forget to pick your brother up from school. Love, Mom" Cayden pretended to read the message out loud apologizing to . "I'll just go bring this down to the office, sorry for the interruption."

"I think that will be for the best" Cayden wasted no time going for the door, rolling her eyes when she heard the teacher say "not a good way to start off the year" right before the door closed.

Austin spun Cayden in the air, kissing her firmly. "Picking your brother up from school? You don't even have a brother. Not to mention your mother hasn't spoken to you since we moved in together."

"Ugh, don't remind me of how dysfunctional my so called family is." Austin sent her a smirk, "fuck 'em, you got me."

Cayden smiled at her boyfriend, he always knew exactly what to say. The pair decided to call it a day, skipping the rest of their classes, going back to their small one bedroom apartment they shared together.

"What do you think of the Hardy's?" Lacey asked her two friends at their lunch table located in the center of the café. She was returned with two blank stares. "Lacey!" Madison growled under her breath "What are you thinking?"

"What? They're older" Lacey pleaded putting emphasis on the word older, wasn't it just this morning her friend was talking about getting an older boyfriend?

Madison started to explain why her friend was totally wrong, but something caught her eye walking into the cafeteria, something…blonde. "Oh my god! Didn't he graduate?" Madison asked, keeping her eyes locked on the hockey player.

"Who?" Velvet scanned the café finally focusing her eyes on the same man Madison was fixated on. "Adam? Nope, he's repeating senior year."

A light bulb went off in Madison's head, _he's perfect_, she thought, older, cute cool, athletic, plus he's a student, so she could flaunt him around school, that would totally one up Kelly.

"Girls, I think we just started to like hockey." Velvet scoffed, "Adam's cute for you, but what about us?" She demanded, practically shooting daggers at Madison for yet again thinking only about herself. "AJ and Frankie" Madison looked smug as Velvet pondered the thought, "they're not older than us, we're all seniors."

"Who cares?" Madison practically yelled, "listen…" she said a bit softer, pulling Lacey into the conversation, "they're cute, popular and on the hockey team, sounds perfect for you two. I'm going for Adam, I don't care what you girls do."

With that Madison got up leaving her two friends speechless at their lunch table. Velvet sighed , "Dibs on AJ" she said unenthusiastically feeling 2nd fiddle to Madison, a feeling she was starting to get used to.

"Fine by me" Lacey smiled, "Traci said Frankie has a HUGE" "LACEY!" Velvet hollered, "Control yourself – Let's go."

Adam watched as Madison Rayne strut out of the school at the final bell much like he had when she made her exit from the cafeteria earlier that day. That girl commanded attention and right now she was holding his at gun point as she slid in to the driver's side of a shiny black Lexus. Much to his surprise she acknowledged him watching her, blowing him a kiss then sending him a flirty wink.

"Perks of bein' captain, eh?" "What?" Adam was caught off guard hearing a voice directly behind him, turning only to find his friend, Frankie Kazarian behind him.

"Madison" he nodded toward the female, "What about her?" Adam asked puzzled. "She's cute" Frankie checked out the blonde as she drove away, waiting for his friends reply. "Yeah, well, I don't know if she's my type."

"I didn't know hot girls were a turn off for you man, somethin' you need to tell me?" the smaller man joked. When Adam confessed to Frankie that he had his eyes on the cute blonde from art class, Frankie was quick to dish on Adams latest interest.

"Her name's Tiffany, she's defiantly a cutie, a real baby though, she's only a sophomore." "So? I'm a senior, and besides, Chris dates a sophomore." Frankie laughed slightly at his friend, "Chris is 18, Kelly's 16, You, Adam, are 19, little Tiff is only 15, big difference." Adam just shrugged, clearly annoyed at his friends ability to prove him wrong, especially bringing numbers into it, after all, math was never his strong subject.


	2. Chapter 2

At 6:30 AM exactly, Chris Sabin's alarm clock went off. Chris was able to turn the alarm off immediately seeing as he was already awake. The young man had a very hard time sleeping last night due to catching some sort of sickness. He was defiantly still feeling a pounding headache, when his phone rang he could feel the sound in his brain.

"Hello?" he answered groggily, "Hey man, it's Jimmy" "What's up Jim?" Chris continued the conversation as he got dressed in comfortable clothes for school. Deciding on a sweatshirt and track pants since he really didn't feel well.

"You alright man? You sound a little tired." "I think I'm getting sick" and as if on cue, went into a fit of sneezing. "God bless you, man" Jimmy said politely, before holding the phone away from his face opting not to listen to his friend blow his nose.

"We're coming to pick you up, be ready." Jimmy shut his cell phone, looking over at Alex. "Kid sounds a mess." Alex just shook his head, "We have band practice tomorrow" he simply said, lighting his cigarette.

Jimmy couldn't help but roll his eyes at his friends comment, knowing Chris would have done the same thing had he been here. Chris and Jimmy had always felt connected to each other out of the group of three, in that they were both a bit more mature than their friend Alex, but their was no denying the fact that Alex and Chris were like brothers. They kept each other balanced out and it was clear to everyone that the two were best friends.

As the two pulled up to Chris' house, their friend was already standing at the mailbox waiting for them to pick him up.

"Thanks for the ride man" Chris slid into the backseat, lying down across it almost immediately. Seeing his best friend, Alex turned around in the passenger seat to face him. Alex watched as Chris lay on his stomach coughing into the sleeve of his sweatshirt in the back of the car.

"You don't look so good." Chris turned to face his friend, Alex, "I don't feel so good either dude" he said rudely before reaching into the front and turning the loud radio off, "I've got a killer headache, I can't breathe, my throat is on fire, I'm so dizzy I could throw up and worst of all, I didn't get a minute of sleep last night."

"Suck it up, you're starting to sound like Jimmy – _Becky doesn't love me, what am I to do with my poor pathetic life, wah wah wah._" The youngest of the three was met by two dirty looks by the remaining members of the car.

He sighed, letting a cocky smile peek threw, "lighten up, I'm only kidding, feel better Chris" Alex nodded to his best friend as he stepped out of the passenger seat of Jimmy's car into the school parking lot, "and Jimmy?" the smug brunette waited until Jimmy turned to face him, "your girl wants me".

Alex smiled and hopped on his skateboard, rolling up to the front of the school before the other 2 boys even got out of the car. Chris looked from across the parking lot at his friend, who kicked his board up into his hands as an attempt to impress a group of younger blondes walking by.

Kelly shot Alex Shelley a weak smile as he did a skateboarding trick right in front of her and her best friend, Tiffany. After they were out of view of the dark haired boy, she rolled her eyes and snickered with the fellow blonde.

"So Chris is having a party tonight, want to get ready at my house?" Kelly asked her friend, as the two walked arm in arm into the school. "He's having a party? But it's a Wednesday." "Come on Tiffany, Frankie told me that Adam Copeland has been asking about you." Kelly nudged the younger blonde and winked, "he's one of Chris's best friends, he's gonna be there tonight."

Tiffany wasn't surprised that Adam had been asking about her, she noticed him staring at her in art class, she just couldn't understand what he would want with her, Adam was a senior, and popular, and Tiffany, while not unpopular, had only just moved here last year and hadn't made many friends, maybe this was a good chance for her.

"Fine, I'll be at your house at 6 to get ready." "Great!" Kelly smiled, "Well, I've got class" Tiffany walked away from her best friend to head to her first period class of the day.

Madison stared at the empty chair to the right of her, before checking the time on her blackberry. "Velvet, where's Lacey?" "Don't know, don't care" Velvet sighed, reading the text that came into her inbox only seconds before.

Madison scoffed, at Velvet, what has been her problem lately? She quickly shook off her friends' attitude, and leaned a little closer to her. "Did you hear about Chris Jericho's party tonight?" "I'm going with AJ" Velvet responded in a monotone, not even bothering to look up from her phone.

The small blonde rolled her eyes at Velvets bitchiness, it wasn't exactly out of character for her friend but it was still unnecessary, but at the same time, Madison couldn't help but be a little jealous that Velvet was already going on a date with AJ. Of course Velvet was beautiful, like Madison, and no guy in this school would turn them down, but Madison had only just proposed Velvet going for AJ and they're already going on a date.

She thought of Adam, and that she hasn't even talked to him since deciding he was going to be her next boyfriend. Madison knew for a fact that he would be at Chris's party tonight, so she had to look good.

"How about shopping after school?" She leaned over to Velvet once again, only to get another rude remark. "Me and Lacey are getting manicures" Velvet looked up to see Madison taken a back a bit and she soaked up every minute of it. Madison was always bossing the other two girls around, and had even proclaimed herself the 'leader' of their little group.

Madison had enough, and snapped at her so-called friend in a little above a whisper, so the rest of the class couldn't here. "Lacey isn't even here, Velvet!" The recipient of the remark raised her eyebrows, "There she is now." Madison followed Velvets eye line out the window, where they could view Senior Parking Lot.

Are you kidding me? Madison thought to herself, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Frankie Kazarian's sleek black Escalade whipping into the parking lot as though he thought he was in an action movie. Lacey emerged from the passenger seat, her unmistakable blonde hair flew around in the wind a little bit. She laughed in an innocent way, holding her hair down with hands.

Frankie came around the other side of the car and pulled Lacey under his arm, placing his baseball hat on her head and kissing her, right there in the parking lot.

Madison's jaw must've hit the floor from what she just witness, was she really the one left out of her friends? Although Velvet wasn't acting like much of a friend right now, she knew sweet Lacey wouldn't be as cold as the much more independent Velvet. She knew still something had to change, she wasn't going to put up with whatever was going on for much longer.

Austin sat on the couch of his apartment with his good friend Jack Evans, as the two passed a joint back and forth. The two juniors decided to skip school today, while Austin's girlfriend Cayden went for the day. It was a rare occasion that the two of them weren't together, but Austin couldn't be bothered to go to school today.

"Someone's at the door, bro" Jack nodded his head toward the door; Austin sighed and got up, dragging his feet all the way to the door, groggily answering it. His mood perked up when he saw his beautiful girlfriend leaning up against the door frame "Forgot my key, sorry".

"Babe...I uhh... wasn't...expect-" "Austin, are you stoned?" He smiled, leaning down to kiss Cayden. He gave her a small laugh, "Baby, I couldn't tell you how many blunts I smoked today." Cayden smiled at her boyfriend, he was so cute without even trying.

Austin took notice to the two girls, standing off to the side of his girlfriend. He recognized one of them as Becky Bayless; he was sort of friends with her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy, though he was in a grade above him and Cayden.

Becky was one of Caydens only girlfriends, most of the time she was just one of the boys, and Austin was almost positive that's why her and Becky got a long so well. He always saw the younger of the two, hanging out with Chris and Alex, even her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy.

The other girl he didn't recognize, he was sure he'd never seen her at school before, but it was a good possibility that she did go to their school, it wasn't very often that Austin actually went to his classes.

"Hi Becky" Austin gave the brunette a toothy smiley. She smiled back and returned the hello, also introducing him to the blonde, "This is Kaitlyn, she's new to town". "Hello" Austin said, almost brushing off the introduction, grabbing his girlfriends hand and guiding her into the house. "Girls, you can come in."

Kaitlyn followed Becky into the living room area, where the two were making small talk with Jack. "Are you going to Jericho's party tonight?" Jack shook his head, "Nah, I gotta work, I heard Austin saying something about it though."

"Yeah, we're going." Austin and Cayden emerged from the bedroom, hand in hand, "You two can catch a ride with us if you want." "Actually, we're going with Jimmy and Alex" Becky said flatly, "You and Jimmy? Back together again?" Austin and Becky were having a nice back and forth conversation, "No, but he's my friend and so is Alex."

Cayden rolled her eyes listening into their conversation, she sometimes wondered if Becky had even liked Jimmy in the first place. Cayden looked across the room at Kaitlyn, who was joking around with Jack, the two had just met minutes before but by looking at them you would have guessed they were life long friends.

Although Becky had only just introduced Cayden herself to the blonde today, Cayden already considered her a friend; she must just have that effect on people. "Cay?" She quickly looked across the room to Jack, who was calling her name, "You mind dropping me off at home? I have work in a bit." "No problem at all" she smiled at him, grabbing her keys off the table. Jack was probably Cayden and Austin's best friend; little favors like this were kind of expected of each other.

"Ill drive him baby, I gotta run to the package store. You'd think I was the only kid in this town with a fake." Austin joked; referring to him having a fake I.D. he's been providing alcohol to every ones party since he was 15. "This way you can hang out with your friends too." Cayden threw her boyfriend the keys and gave him a quick kiss goodbye, "Bye Jack" "Damn, I'm high" Jack mumbled as he stood up, putting on his jacket and sunglasses, "Bye sweetheart, have a fun night. Bye girls"

"I'm gonna get it in tonight, bro" "That's what I'm talkin' about man" Frankie fist pounded his older friend, Adam, as the two walked into Chris Jericho's house. The two boys agreed to go a little early to help Chris set up a little bit. "Who's the lucky lady gonna be? Tiff or Madison?" Frankie joked with his friend, as he threw a pack of cups and a bag of ping pong balls on the table. "We'll see, man."

"Hello? Anyone here?" "In here!" Chris called out to the voice. Austin Aries appeared carrying 2 brown bags, presumably filled with different types of liquor and beer. "Oh thanks man, what do I owe you?" "80's good" Chris pulled out his wallet and handed Austin some money. "You staying to hang out?" Austin put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and nodded, "lemme just go home and grab my girl, then we'll chill." The boys said goodbye and Chris went into the other room where Adam and Frankie were still setting up.

"Who was that?" "Just Austin, he went to the package store for me" "Who?" Adam asked, looking threw what Austin had picked up for the party. "Aries, the one who dates Cayden" Frankie answered his friends question. Adam smiled to himself, "Do you know everything about everyone?" Chris interrupted the two, "He still dates Cayden? I don't get why such a hot girl would be with such a tool."

Frankie laughed, "She's a dirty bitch if you ask me, doesn't matter though, he's got her all wifed up." The boys all joked around and continued their boy talk, before an influx of people started to come in. In just a short amount a time they had a pretty good party started. Everyone was dancing, or drinking, some people were talking to each other, some were playing beer pong, and everyone was just having a good time.

"We look great" Lacey said as her and Madison walked into the party together, Madison nodded in agreement. Lacey immediately spotted Velvet and AJ talking with her new man, Frankie, AJ with his arm around Velvet. Lacey scurried over and put her hands over Frankie's eyes, "Guess who?" Madison could hear her say from all the way across the party. Madison scanned the room for Adam, and spotted him playing pool with his best friend Christian.

"Well, there's one thing I miss about high school" Christian said, nudging Adam in the ribs, "Madison Rayne's rack, damn, she is so fine." "You think so?" Christian nodded, "Oh yeah." Adam looked at Madison up and down, she did look great tonight, not a hard task for her. He thought about it, and didn't think of a time that she didn't look great.

"Boys" Madison smiled, grabbing a pool stick that was leaning against the wall, "mind if I join your game?" "Go right ahead" "Be my guest" Both boys seem almost dumbfounded by her presence, this was going to be easy, Madison thought to herself, leaning over the pool table.

"Chris couldn't make it tonight?" Becky leaned toward Alex to talk over the loud music. "He's sick, so I made sure to look good enough for both you ladies". Jimmy rolled his eyes, secretly wishing that Chris was here so he wouldn't have to listen to Alex hit on his ex-girlfriend all night.

"Sup Jimmy? Alex?" Austin greeted both the boys with his arms wrapped, "Hi girls". All four said hello to Austin and Cayden. Austin stuck out his hand for Jimmy to give him daps; when they were close enough Austin took the chance to whisper to him. "You got anything man?" He shook his head, "I don't fuck around like that anymore, sorry my dude". Austin told him not to worry about it, and told the rest of the group he'll see them around.

Cayden grabbed his arm before the 2 walked off together, Alex watched as they danced together only feet away, Cayden really knew how to move.

Tiffany couldn't have felt like more of a third wheel as she stood with Chris and Kelly, who were being all lovey dovey with each other. She looked across the room and saw Adam dancing, Madison Rayne's ass completely in his lap as she moved up and down in front of him, I guess Kelly was wrong about him being interested in her.

Suddenly she noticed him looking right back at her, and he flashed her a big white smile, she turned away quickly then realized how lame that made her seem so she slowly turned back around to see him still looking at her. She sent him a smile back and the two had a fixed gaze on each other.

"Who are you looking at? Tiff? Tiffany?" Kelly was being ignored by her best friend, but was able to figure out who the other blonde was concentrating on when she looked across the party and saw Adam Copeland winking in their direction. "What a skank" Kelly turned to her older boyfriend, "Babe, your friends have horrible taste in girls".

Chris looked around the room to see Adam dancing with Madison, and AJ and Frankie both with their arms around Velvet and Lacey. All of the three girls were gorgeous in his own opinion, but he was smooth and knew how to talk to his girlfriend.

"Not everyone can have a girlfriend as pretty as mine." Tiffany rolled her eyes; she wasn't sure how Kelly couldn't see threw Chris's sweet talk. "Isn't he adorable?" Kelly squealed, pinching his cheeks with a huge smile on her face.

"You girls should come to our next practice" AJ suggested as he and his best friend sat with two of the hottest girls in school. Velvet knew she would not be caught dead going to one of those practices, a game maybe, but her time would not be wasted watching these boys run drills. "I was thinking we could go on my Daddy's boat instead" Lacey nodded in agreement to her best friend.

"Baby girl, it's getting kinda late" Frankie took a hold of Laceys hand, "You wanna go back to my place for the night? I'm starting to get tired" Lacey saw Madison sitting with Adam, both of them laughing, and figured it was probably okay if she left with Frankie, even though the two girls had arrived together. The tall blonde grabbed her purse, "I'll just go tell Madison I don't need a ride home" "Sounds good" Frankie kissed her and gave her a light tap on the butt, sending her in the direction of her friend.

"Hey sexy!" Madison stood up giving Lacey a smooch on the cheek. It was clear to Lacey that her friend was wasted. "I'm gonna go, Frankie's giving me a ride", "Kazarian? He was supposed to be my ride." Adam looked at Lacey for some kind of answer, but the sweet blonde didn't quite know what to say.

"Madison will bring you home, right Maddy?" Frankie appeared out of no where, putting his arm around Lacey. Adam thought about it, he wouldn't mind going home with Madison, she was smokin' hot, but he couldn't help but continue to make eyes with Tiffany. He knew he had to keep his options open.

"I don't think you're sober enough to drive, sweetheart, I'm not getting in your car tonight" Adam scanned the room for another option, Christian was chugging something out of a funnel, he spotted Austin, the younger boy who brought the bottles before, dancing with his girlfriend, AJ making out with Velvet Sky by the speakers, Jimmy Jacobs and Alex Shelley owning 2 sophomores in beer pong, his eyes traveled and became fixed on Tiffany, as her and Kelly danced with each other, twirling around and laughing. What a beautiful girl she really was, "I'll get a ride, don't worry about it, go have fun with your girl" "Thanks man".

The party slowly started to dwindle down, but a few guests still remained, having a good time. "Have I told you how great you look tonight?" "Only about 6 times" Becky giggled at Alex, he was cute, but he tried to hard. "Sorry" he gave her a small smile, Becky's fix on him softened a little bit, she really liked when Alex acted like a normal highschooler, and not some pick up artist.

Alex bit his bottom lip, trying to think of something to talk about, "Your friend, Kaitlyn, she's cool". Becky nodded, "She's a blast to hang out with too." "Yeah, it seems like it, I'm sure Chris would think so too, once he's feeling a little better." "You wanna like, set them up? You think he'd be into her?" Becky asked, a little bit weirded out that Alex was so focused on setting their friends up, she had known Alex for a while, and he was never one to really care about others, but maybe Chris was an exception to him.

"For sure, we could do like a double date type thing" His motive was revealed, "Oh, a date?" Becky joked. Alex quickly stiffened up, becoming nervous almost, something that never happened to him, but he played it cool. "You want them to be comfortable don't you?" "Sure, it's a date."


	3. Chapter 3

Adam strolled into school, his headphones blasting over his ears. After the night he had last night, he couldn't help but smile. The blonde felt a tap on his shoulders and turned around lightning fast, "Oh AJ, it's you", Adam caught his breath as he took his headphones out.

"Scared me half to death" AJ smiled, "I wouldn't have to if you could hear me calling your name for the past 3 minutes", "Sorry about that" Adam held up his headphones as an explanation.

"Right, so sorry about last night – didn't mean to bail so early" AJ said, referencing him leaving with out saying goodbye to his team-mate, "you know how it is" the brunette winked, pulling his collar down, revealing a purplish-red hickey on his neck.

"Velvet gave that to you?" Adam looked at his friend, impressed, "you're in the big leagues now, my friend, she's a 10, no doubt." AJ gleamed with pride, knowing how many guys in their school lust over Velvet.

"How about you, man? Get any last night?" Adam gave AJ a knowing look, as if AJ shouldn't even have to ask. As if on queue, Madison Rayne walked by, arms linked with Lacey Von Erich, sending the hockey teams captain a flirty wink.

"Madison? You bagged Madison last night, bro?" It was true, Adam had spent the night with the beautiful senior, and had a great time with her, she was confident, funny, surprisingly smart and of course incredibly sexy.

The two had utilized Chris' bedroom to it's full during the party. "So, double date soon? You two and Velvet and I?" Adam bit his lip, "I don't know if it's in the cards AJ"

AJ seemed a little shocked at Adams answer, Madison seemed like the perfect girl for him, there had to be a reason. "Was she not good or something?" The taller boy practically laughed off AJ's accusation; it was Madison Rayne after all.

"No, that's not it; I've just got my eye on someone else." The shorter of the two was questioning his friends sanity, who could he possibly want over the hottest, most popular girl in school? AJ spotted the new woman in his life walking down the hallway in his direction, "we'll talk later", the two friends departed in different directions, Adam was set on finding Tiffany today at school.

"No Austin again today?" Jack slid into the seat at the lunch table next to his good friend Cayden. She sighed into her bland sandwich before plopping it down on the lunch table. "He went home early."

"Kid needs to start coming to school, you know it's bad when I'm being rational and responsible." Cayden laughed, "Tell me about it, I'm starting to feel like an angel compared to him."

"Well, let's not go that far." Her and Jack joked back and forth for the remainder of the lunch period. "Aren't those your friends?" Cayden scanned the cafeteria, finally noticing Becky and Kaitlyn, acting like bookends for Alex Shelley, each on one side of him.

Cayden did love Becky, and was really growing fond of Kaitlyn as well, but she had a really hard time connecting with girls, and always found herself closer to guys. "Sort of" she shrugged, "What do girls see in Shelley anyway?" Jack smiled; him and Alex used to be friends, but had grown apart while they got older.

"Couldn't tell ya, I've only got eyes for one man" The young man would usually have a smart comment for anyone else, but he knew Cayden, and he knew she was being sincere; Austin and Cayden were hand made for each other.

"What do you say we go pay that slacker boyfriend of yours a visit?" He suggested as the lunch bell rang and the two got up to throw their trash away. "Aussie took the car; he's picking me up at last bell."

"I've got wheels, baby, you forget or something?" Cayden sighed, really wanting to go home and lay in bed with Austin instead of going to history. "Come on, you know you want to."

"You go, I've got class." Jack was taken aback by the usually carefree girl doing the responsible thing, but he wasn't going to continue to peer pressure her; if Austin was going to be as lazy as he has been, it was probably a good thing that Cayden was at least trying.

"I'll see you at the house, kiddo" Cayden nodded before turning into a hallway, walking towards her class, Jack called Austin on his way out the door letting him know he was on his way. Although there was no answer on the other line, Jack decided to just show up, something he did regularly anyway.

Madison, Lacey and Velvet all three stood in the mirror in the girls' locker room, checking their hair and make up before going out to the gym. To Madison, it had felt like forever since the three of them had actually all been together, mainly due to Velvets sudden attitude towards her.

"So Lacey, I was thinking, you and Frankie should come over tonight, AJ's coming already and my parents are going out." Madison held back rolling her eyes at Velvets petty attempt to exclude her yet again, but Madison had other plans. "Or Lacey, _I_ was thinking, sushi? You and Frankie could double with me and Adam."

Lacey glanced blankly at both of her friends, who were each waiting for a reply from her. She didn't know what to say, but thankfully she didn't have to say anything. "That would require you actually talking to Adam" Velvet snapped. Madison scoffed, "I more than _talked_ to him". With that, she started to make her exit, wanting to leave her obviously jealous friend speechless, but that apparently wasn't going to happen.

Velvet took a step in front of Madison, not allowing her to leave, "Slut" she murmured in such a low tone, only allowing Madison to hear her, before walking away herself. When did Velvet start to hate her so much? They used to be best friends, Madison thought to herself. Even though it hurt her to hear such a thing from who she thought to be her 'bff' Madison Rayne would not let herself be humiliated.

"I'll show her a slut" she hummed under her breath, to herself, as she hiked her shorts up and pulled her top down, marching out of the locker room.

Madison spotted Velvet and AJ leaning up against the far wall of the gym, facing each other. She simply walked past the two, hearing and audible scoff from Velvet, Madison smiled. Once she knew her former friend wasn't looking and the object of her affection was, Madison bent down, pretending to tie her shoe.

She wiggled her butt a little, putting on a nice little show for AJ, who she knew was watching her, she snapped back up to a vertical stance, turned on her heels and sent AJ a wink and a kiss, before walking to the other side of the gym to talk with a few of the other girls in their class.

Alex Shelley sat in his last period class, itching to leave. Since Chris was still sick the band had decided to cancel practice which meant he had the afternoon free to himself. Usually he would be bummed not being able to play with his band mates, but today he happened to have a date with Becky Bayless.

Well, it wasn't technically a date, seeing as she had only asked him if he wouldn't mind going with her back to Chris Jericho's house. She said she had left her cell phone at the party, Alex knew Becky barely knew Chris and was probably uncomfortable going to his house by herself, especially when her and Kelly barely got along, he knew this would be major brownie points with her, and had even asked his dad to borrow the car for the occasion.

He figured he should probably text his sick friend and see how he was doing, seeing as he hasn't heard from him all day. He sent Chris a message asking if he was feeling any better, and he got a reply almost instantly, 'he must be bored' Alex thought to himself, reading the message.

"Barely, bored out of my mind and I can't sleep. COD later?" Alex sympathized for his best friend, it wasn't to long ago Alex had strep throat and Chris and Jimmy were always at his house, keeping him busy. He typed back, agreeing, saying he'll be over around dinner, and he'll bring some pizzas – Chris's favorite food.

After having stopped at home to shower and walk his dogs, Jack pulled up to Austin and Caydens apartment, and walked to the front door, noticing another car, besides Austin's was in the driveway. He didn't bother knocking since the front door was wide open, he just let himself inside.

"Aus?" Jack walked into the living room to see Austin face down, passed out on the couch, with Jeff Hardy and Brian Kendrick playing Xbox in the chairs. "Sup dude?" Jeff said, acknowledging the younger man first. "Shit dude" Brian started, looking up from the video game, "long time no see".

Jack simply nodded to the two; he used to hang out with them and a few other notorious drug users in their town, but has since grown up. He still likes to get high and party, no doubt about that, but he has a job now, and he's been going to school and doing well for himself.

He looked at the three in front of him, Jeff and Brian both dropped out of high school last year, during their senior year, and Austin was not much better than them. "He alright?" Jack shook his best friend, who grunted and pushed his hand off his shoulder.

"He's fine, kid's just wasted" Jeff snickered taking a shot straight out of the bottle of captain. "Thirsty?" Jack saw his friends' phone vibrating on the table and answered it, purposely ignoring Jeff, "Hello?"

"Finally" "Hey Cay, its Jack" "Where are you guys?" Jack froze, had Austin really not picked Cayden up from school yet, from the looks of him, he hadn't moved in hours. "Be there in a minute" Jack hung up the phone and grabbed his car keys, ready to go pick up his friend from school.

"You mind picking up some boogies while you're out, bro?" "I'm in a hurry, sorry" Jack said, slamming the door behind him, not even bothering to see if it was Jeff or Brian who had asked, not that it matters.

He pulled up to the school and noticed Cayden must've already spotted him, as she was running towards his car. "Where's Austin? Is he okay? Why isn't he with you?" She climbed into the passenger seat with a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry, he's fine" Jack ignored the rest of her questions as he drove back to the couple's apartment. "Is something the matter? You seem mad?" Jack looked over at Cayden and instantly regretted being such a dick only seconds before, she looked so scared.

"Sorry, Austin's at the house Cayden, he was to drunk to come pick you up." A look of relief flushed over her face and the two sat in near silence on the whole ride home. Jack was clearly in a bad mood, and Cayden didn't want to bother him. "Thank you, Jack, yanno… for the ride. That was really sweet of you"

"Don't mention it, I know you'd do the same for me, it's just -" "Jeff's here?" Cayden cut her friend off, seeing the car of the older boy in her driveway. "Brian, too" Jack rolled his eyes, as the two got out of the car and entered the apartment.

"Hey party girl" Brian stuck his tongue out at Cayden as she walked in the room, throwing her purse on the floor and gliding onto the couch, her arms around Austin. "Hi boys, babe, I'm home" she said practically in one breath.

Austin let out a small moan and rubbed his eyes, "How did you get home?" "Jack drove me" "I'm sorry Cay; I didn't mean to pass out." She kissed his nose, "Don't worry about it, baby."

"Cay. Drive me to the gas station? I'm outta boogies and I'm smashed." "Um, sure Jeff - Aus, Keys?" Austin let out a huge sigh, slowly getting up from where he had been laying down on the couch all afternoon; he made it into his bedroom in practically slow motion, coming back with the keys and some money.

"Get us some cigarettes too, babe." She gave him a kiss goodbye and walked out the door with Jeff, Brian following along as well. Austin groaned, picking up a few things off trash that were thrown about the living room, "Dude, you're a lifesaver." Jack nodded appreciating his friends' gratitude, "No Worries, brah." Austin shook his head, "I can't believe I did that to her, that girls my world."

He started to sniffle a little bit, which caught Jack's attention. "Okay, you're drunk, don't worry about it dude, shit happens, that's why you have friends, can't say you've never got me outta trouble before." Austin nodded, "Thanks dude."

Lacey sat on the floor of Chris Jericho's bedroom, watching a movie on his giant TV, with her legs lounging on Frankie, she was really starting to like him more and more, and was happy Madison had suggested dating him in the first place.

She had been having a lot of fun and had noticed her and Velvet becoming closer in the process as well. The whole existence of their little trio, Madison and Velvet had always been best friends, Lacey liked knowing that now, they both consider her their best friend.

"This is the best part." Kelly said from the couch, where her and her boyfriend, Chris were cuddling with each other, as they all watched the movie. Lacey remembered Madison and Velvet always hating Kelly, and she couldn't tell why, she was fun to hang out with.

Since Lacey had started dating Frankie, she had also expanded her social circle, Lacey hung out with Kelly and Chris regularly now, due too Frankie and Chris being such good friends, although the other blonde was a few years younger, Lacey got a long well with her and the two became close very fast.

Today however, the group of four were joined by Velvet and AJ, as well as Tiffany, another sophomore, who Lacey had only recognized from seeing her a few times in school and Adam, the man who Madison Rayne claimed to be having a thing with.

Things looked different to Lacey though, as she watched Adam joke with Tiffany, the two of them barely paying attention to the movie, as they were too wrapped up in the whisper conversation they were having with each other.

AJ looked at Adam, laughing with Tiff, and assumed she must've been the other girl Adam was talking about earlier. AJ's blonde friend, who usually played it cool around girls, was acting goofy and silly, whispering things back and forth with a girl 4 years younger than him.

The four groups of two all lounged in Chris's oversized bedroom when the door flew open. "Shellaaaaayy" AJ blurted out, throwing a pillow at the boy with a fohawk. Not many people knew the two were friends, but they had managed to stay close although being in different cliques. Alex dodged the pillow, and greeted everyone in the room as a whole.

Chris had been expecting Alex, and threw him the cell phone, "What's up with you and phone girl?" "Who Becky?" Alex asked, even though he clearly knew who Chris was talking about. "Yeah, why are you coming to get this and not her?"

Becky was Alex's good friend, despite him being interested in her, and he didn't want to admit that she was to nervous to come due to not knowing the older boy, and in return make her look bad. "She didn't have a ride, figure I'd come in and say what's up."

"Thanks for doing this for me" Becky smiled as Alex handed her the cell phone, the two of them were already driving away in Alex's dad's car. "Feel free to make it up to me" Alex joked with the gorgeous brunette, as the two drove around together. She rolled her eyes but laughed a little, he really didn't give up. "Um, Alex… my house is the other way." "I got some things I gotta do before I bring you home"

"Alex, we've been driving around for an hour and a half and all you've done is pick up your dad's dry cleaning, get a McChicken and drop off a magazine subscription at the post office. Did you really have to drag me along?" Becky asked impatiently, after a significant amount of time had gone by and the young mad hadn't done much of importance.

"Maybe I just wanted to spend some more time with you?" "By taking me to the Laundromat? How romantic, Shelley, you've really out done yourself."

"Funny" Alex exhaled, why was he striking out so bad with this girl? They hung out all the time, Alex would go as far as saying she was his closest girl friend, but yet, now that he's showed serious interest in her, it's like they never knew each other in the first place.

"Well I just gotta pick up a pizza, and then I'll drop you off. I wouldn't want to torture you with having to hang out with me anymore."

Becky instantly felt bad having been a little too sarcastic with Alex, there wasn't a reason to act like spending a little bit of her afternoon with him was worse than the death penalty.

Truthfully, she always had fun with Alex, he could lighten any mood, he was so quick witted and cute, and when he wasn't trying to impress her, he was a real sweetheart.

"Maybe you'd like someone to eat that pizza with?" Becky batted her eyelashes at the man driving the car, "You're gonna think I'm lame, but I'm bringing it over to Chris's house, yanno, to hang out and play video games or whatever. Sorry."

"Why would I think that's lame?" Alex shrugged, "I'm turning down a gorgeous girl asking me out for dinner, to go hang out with my sick friend." Becky smiled, "I think it's sweet, we can have dinner tomorrow."

"Are you sure it's not gonna make you want to commit suicide?" Alex joked, his smile so bright, obviously happy Becky was making a move. His confidence was about shot with her, from all the rejections, but she just boosted it right back up to where it should be. He knew any girl in their right mind wouldn't be able to turn down his charms, Alex knew he was good with his words and always used it to his advantage.

Becky laughed in return, getting out of the car when the two pulled into her favorite pizza place. She didn't even push Alex's arm away when he wrapped it around her shoulders, instead she rested her head on his shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

"What is your excuse today Ms. Thomas?" Professor Bischoff accepted the late pass from the tiny girl, placing it on the top of his desk.

"Just got to a late start this morning, sorry Professor" he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'd advise you not to let it happen again, but I fear I'd just be wasting my breath. How about you Mr. Aries?" The teacher turned his attention to the scruffy looking boy trailing behind his girlfriend.

"To what do I owe this pleasure? I had figured you forgot you were in my class." Austin bit his bottom lip, slightly annoyed by the strict teachers' sarcasm.

He stood back and let Cayden do the talking, she was generally better at keeping her cool and Austin didn't want to get either of them in any more trouble.

"Can we talk about it after class, Mr. Bischoff?" Cayden politely asked, motioning towards the other students, implying she wasn't comfortable speaking in front of an audience.

"Very well, page forty-five in your textbooks." The couple took a pair of empty seats in the back of the room close to their friend, Jack.

"You two, I don't know dude, you guys are something else" Jack chuckled and shook his head, removing the ears from his iPod, in order to speak with his friends.

"Look who's talking" Austin quickly dismissed the blonde before leaning closer to his longtime girlfriend, "I can't believe you dragged me here, babe."

Cayden smiled at her boyfriend, it was a good feeling, knowing Austin only came to school because she had asked him to come. She felt like she was doing the right thing for him.

It sometimes seemed to her like Austin wasn't capable of making responsible decisions, as much as she liked to party as well, she didn't want to see Austin end up like his friends Jeff or Brian.

"Well, thanks for coming Aus; I need you to keep me company here." Cayden was far from an A+ student but she occasionally really tried.

"You know I can't say no to you." Jack rolled his eyes upon hearing the conversation next to him.

As far as couples go, Austin and Cayden were never really heavy with all the fluffy romance stuff but like all high school sweethearts they had their corny moments.

"Well, except when you ask me to do that…thing, that's just gross." Jack laughed, typical Austin. He had no idea how Cayden dealt with his sometimes childish antics 24/7, it took quite a lot of patience to handle him, even in small doses.

As he watched the two out of boredom, it was so clear how in love they were, not high school – 'I love you until I go to college' – love, but the kind of love everyone fantasizes about, and who was he kidding? Neither Austin or Cayden would ever go to college.

As cliché as it may sound, they were going to be the perfect couple forever.

The 11th grade geometry class couldn't go slower, but Cayden didn't mind. She was able to drown out the boring ramblings of Mr. Bischoffs' lesson by doodling on the face of her desk and joking with Austin.

She was dreading the talk after class discussion with the teacher. As the end of the class got closer she had the time to think about how to word her explanation for her work ethic at school.

"Catch you two at lunch?" Jack called across the classroom as he stood in the doorway at the end of the period. Austin agreed from his seat for the both of them.

"Mr. Evans, you may go" Professor Bischoff didn't bother to look up from the attendance sheet in his hand.

"Mr. Bischoff?" Cayden approached the teachers desk timidly, curious to the fact that he had not addressed her or Austin after several minutes of silence.

"I didn't forget about you Cayden, take your seat." "I thought we were going to talk, sir." The teacher finally looked up from his papers, "I asked you to sit down, Ms. Thomas, the two of show up to my class whenever you please, so I only see it fit that I address you when I please."

Stunned at the teachers calm but rude response Cayden stood at the edge of his desk, speechless. "Your seat, young lady, don't make me repeat myself."

Austin gripped the edge of his desk in anger. "Don't talk to her like that." The young boy stood up, slamming both hands on top of the desk.

"Austin means… We have Bio, were sort of in a hurry." The older man sighed, placing his papers down and rising from his swivel chair.

"Austin chose his own words Cayden, no use telling me what you would have said. Now Mr. Aries, Ms. Thomas, why is biology such a concern but you can't be bothered to worry about my class?"

"Mr. Long isn't a total dick." Austin muttered under his breath as he sat back down. "Thank you Mr. Aries, Cayden and I can handle it from here."

"If she's staying, I'm staying." Cayden stood in silence with a worried look on her face as the two went back and forth before Austin reluctantly rose to his feet. "Are you coming Cay?"

"I'll only be a minute." Austin planted a heavy kiss on his girlfriends' lips and slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Mr. B, I'm sorry, I've been trying to get him to do be—"

"There's no doubt you've been trying, perhaps just not hard enough. I haven't forgot about your, along with Mr. Aries', antics from last year, and it's great to see your improving, but you still have some of the worst marks out of all my kids."

"It's unfair to compare me to your other students." The usually soft spoken Cayden spoke in a very serious, methodical tone, garnering the respect of her professor.

"I don't have the support of a family, I have responsibilities, I have someone to care for and worry about besides myself. I don't come to school because my parents tell me to or because I want to better my education. I come to school because if I don't can't collect student welfare, Austin and I have bills to pay, we rent an apartment, and we're still paying off our car. I have all the pressure of a teenager with all the responsibilities of an adult. Sorry if I can't make it to your class on time but I have a lot going on."

She took a deep breath, a little bit stunned how mature she sounded when she spoke. During Caydens plea, she had purposely left out Austins, and possibly her own drug and alcohol problems, which didn't make things any easier.

She left her teacher at a loss for words which was not an easy task, feeling uncomfortable in the silence Cayden continued to speak. "I'm not asking for you to feel sorry for us, or give me special treatment, I'm just asking that you take into consideration, and maybe try and understand how much I have on my plate."

Without waiting for a response or to be dismissed, Cayden threw her bag over her shoulder and walked into the hallway where Austin was patiently waiting for her.

Madison Rayne scoffed at the image of Austin Aries and Cayden Thomas kissing in the cafeteria. Their bodies could not get any closer, did they not realize people were eating around them, it was sickening. Although the two were probably too high to even realize they were in the cafeteria.

A small smile crept onto her face just by making fun of the junior couple in her head. Although Madison would never admit it, she was slightly jealous of the grungy 11th graders, even though Cayden regularly wore cargos and converses and Austin had yellowish teeth from smoking so many cigarettes, the two had managed to still want to be with each other, although it baffled her, Madison couldn't help but want that too.

A feeling of sadness washed over her, she had been so alone lately, and the feeling only became stronger when she caught a glimpse of her former lackeys seated together with AJ and Frankie. The whole school wouldn't stop talking about the two couples, not to long ago it was Madison that was fawned over by the rest of the students, and here she was standing a lone staring into the filled cafeteria and not having a place to sit.

"Looks like we both could use some company" Madison perked up hearing the familiar voice of her crush sneak up behind her. "Is that an invitation?" Adam held his hand out signaling for her to lead the way. He watched her shake her hips as she walked seductively in front of him.

"So why aren't you sitting with your friends?" Madison gestured toward where Frankie and AJ were sitting with the girls. "I could ask you the same question" Adam seemed a little distant, staring at Madison at moments then drifting away at others, looking around the cafeteria blankly.

"I'd rather sit with you" the coy blonde played it cool as she always did, the remark must have caught Adams attention because his eyes were directed back at her.

"I had fun with you the other night, at the party" Adam spoke, he wasn't sure if he should bring up the night of Chris's party or not. The two had gone all the way that night and hadn't really spoken since, mainly because of a certain skirt wearing sophomore Adam had his eye on lately.

Madison was completely oblivious that Adam had taken a liking to Tiffany, as far as she was concerned, she was Madison Rayne and he was a high school boy, just like every other relationship she had been in.

"I did too" Madison licked her bottom lip playfully, knowing she had rocked the older mans' world that night. They both may have had too much to drink but it was a conscious decision on Madison's part.

His smile grew towards the gorgeous girl before him. Of course he was attracted to the beauty; she was stunning it was obvious she was interested in him.

Even though Madison was cool, smart, pretty and every guys dream date in high school, Adam didn't want things to go past the friends with benefits stage. He had experienced girls like her before. Underneath her coy exterior lay some truly malicious qualities.

Adam had dated many 'Queen Bees' and they were all the same, shallow, stuck up, and owned an overwhelming urge to make everyone else feel beneath them. Adam knew he could be shallow as well, but he didn't take it to the level of bitchiness that his ex-girlfriends and Madison did.

He knew he had a great girl in Tiffany, she was so down to earth and sweet, the innocence of the young girl was more attractive then any of Madison's high heels or push up bras could ever be.

"We're sort of in the middle of something." Madisons harsh tone snapped the blonde back into reality, his gaze caught Tiffany and her best friend Kelly leaning over the lunch table he was sharing with Madison.

"Why don't you two kids run along?" The small blonde's continued bullying had only confirmed his thoughts that she was not the girl for him, but he would never rule her out for a quick hookup. Feeling trapped in between both of his potential girls, Adam was at a loss for words.

"No it's okay, sit down girls, what's up?" He could feel the daggers Madison was shooting from her eyes as the two younger girls sat besides him. "When you're done babysitting, call me."

Madison slid back in her chair and walked out of the café with her hands on her hips, only overhearing the Adams deep voice caused her to spin around on her heels. "Sorry about that" He spoke in a tone he hadn't used with her, while they had their lunch he had seemed spacey and far away, when he spoke to Tiffany, he looked her right in the eyes and sounded focused.

That's when she saw it - Adam slowly leaning in, brushing combing a shiny lock of blonde hair from the teenage girls' face, before placing a light kiss on her cheek. The sight made Madison's insides flame, she could feel her teeth grinding and her face getting hot, "You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Chris sat on the office towards the end of the day, waiting for his mom to arrive to drive him to his doctors' appointment. The high school senior had been sick for long enough now, and although he had resumed attending school, he still wasn't feeling well.

"What did you do this time?" Becky's sweet voice caught his attention. He quickly looked up at the younger girl entering the office. She brought a piece of paper to the front desk, saying it was her teachers' attendance sheet before walking back over to Chris.

"Doctors appointment" he held his early dismissal pass up where she could see it, fighting back a cheesy grin when Becky sat down next to him.

"Right, how are you feeling? Any better?"

"A little better, yeah. I still have a nasty cough" he cleared his throat for emphasis.

Chris' mom walked into the office, "Come on Christopher, I've been waiting in the parking lot for five minutes, we're going to be late." Chris was slightly embarrassed that even at eighteen years old his mother was picking him up from school, and causing a scene no less, but he didn't have a car so there wasn't really a way around it.

"Becky, how are you? You don't come to the house with Jimmy any more." Chris grabbed his back pack while his mom talked with Becky. When she was dating Jimmy, the couple would constantly come to Chris' house together, and since their brake up, she had yet to come over.

"Oh, Ms. Sabin, Jimmy and I broke up; I guess the boys didn't mention it to you." She sent Chris an awkward smile, letting him know she was feeling uncomfortable.

"Mom, we should go, Doctors, remember?" "Right, let's go honey, nice seeing you Becky, don't be a stranger." Chris and his mother walked out the front doors of the school, "She's such a sweet girl, Jimmy must be heartbroken."

"Yeah, umm, he's really torn up about it." Chris felt weird talking about his friend's love life with his mom; it was even weirder how interested she seemed in the subject.

He gave a small nod to Austin and Jack who were leaning up against the schools brick, smoking cigarettes. It was odd to see Austin at school for one, but also with out Cayden. Chris had never been close with either of the three, but was semi-acquainted with them through mutual friends.

"Are those friends of yours?" Why was his mom being so overbearing today? Chris knew he needed to get his shit together and get a car so this could end.

"No mom, just school mates" She nodded, looking a little revealed as if she was scared Chris was hanging out with such 'scary teens'. Chris rolled his eyes before closing them as he rest his head on the window on the way to his appointment.

"Babe, lemme drive." AJ kissed Velvets neck, slipping his hand in the back pocket of her skin tight True Religions.

She turned to face him, meeting his lips halfway for a kiss, "Just this once."

After dropping the keys into his hands, Velvet climbed into the passenger seat of her own car. "I guess this gives me time to do my nails before we get there" she smiled, pulling a small bottle of light pink polish from her bag.

As Velvet began painting, AJ and Frankie explained their plan to the girls. "It's one of the last nice days to go to the beach; we gotta hit it up one more time." Both girls agreed, the beach was one of their favorite places.

"AJ, stop at my house, I'll grab some suits for me and Velvet." Lacey smiled, thrilled that she was going to be spending yet another day with her best friend, and the man she thought of as her soon to be boyfriend.

The girls tried on bathing suits in Lacey's giant bedroom, the Von Erich's were undoubtedly one of the richest families in the area and Lacey had more than enough to show for it.

"Are you girls almost ready?" Frankie walked up the spiral staircase into Lacey's room, like he had many times before. "AJ's almost done loading up the car, we should get going if we wanna meet up with Chris and Adam"

Velvet turned away from the man, rolling her eyes in the process, Chris was fun, and she didn't mind hanging out with him, it was his girlfriend that drove her crazy. Velvet had never liked Kelly, and it was no secret, but in order to keep their new so called 'group' in order, Velvet had to play nice. The worst part was it seemed like Lacey actually was becoming friends with the younger girl.

The two girls followed Frankie down the stairs and into the car, where AJ was already in the drivers seat waiting for them. "Don't get too used to this AJ" Velvet joked as she buckled her seat belt. The dark haired boy smirked and wrapped his free hand around Velvets shoulders as he leaned back and drove all the way to the beach.

Lacey and Frankie were like two kids in the backseat, joking and kissing each other all over. Lacey even gave him a 'sneak preview' of her suit, quickly separating the top, letting the boy kiss her sternum.

AJ and Velvet just smiled, they were used to the other couples over the top PDA, but preferred to keep it classy when they had an audience.

The four set up their towels on the sand next to their friends' who were already there. "How are the waves?" AJ spread out on the oversized towel, leaving enough room for Velvet to lie comfortably beside him.

"Not worth it" Chris popped open a beer and pulled Kelly down onto his lap taking a sip. Adam shook his head in agreement, "No action today boys."

AJ sighed, "Sucks. Last beach day and we can't even ride."

Tiffany looked up from the newest issue of Seventeen for the first time since the other four had arrived. Unlike the other three girls, she and Adam weren't exactly dating, and it made her uncomfortable to be the odd one out.

She pushed her oversized sunglasses up to the top of her head, "Kelly brought a beach ball, we can walk down to the volley ball net." The others agreed, slowly getting up.

"Me and Lace are gonna hang back, watch our stuff." Frankie threw his cell phone onto the beach towel, nonchalantly and rested on his elbows besides the blonde beauty.

She turned to smile at him holding out his hand for him to hold. "Good looks" AJ gave his best friend a fist pound, then jogged to catch up to the others who were already walking along the shore.

Once they were out of earshot Frankie cleared his throat in order to gain the girls attention. "Sooo…" She could tell he was nervous, something that was very uncommon for the hockey player, especially since they had grown to be so comfortable around each other. Lacey had even let the man see her with out make up, for god sakes.

"What's on your mind?" She giggled, removing the straw hat from her head and placing it by her side as she sat up to face him.

"Well it's just that we've been spending a lot of time together, and I've been having a lot of fun with you, but I was sort of hoping we could take it to the next level." He glanced nervously at her, awaiting a response.

"Frankie Kazarian, are you asking me to be your girl friend?" she beamed, hoping the answer was yes. Lacey reached her hand out to touch his toned stomach. The heat from the sun was making the young man sweat, but Lacey enjoyed how his body looked, glistening in the sun.

She ran her pointer finger up and down the middle of his stomach. The boy nodded shyly, nervous that she would say no.

Lacey kissed him gently on the lips, "Of course." She could feel his lips turn into a smile as they kissed, and she was truly happy as well.

The two got a long so well, it was only natural that they started to get more serious as their relationship grew. "So, boyfriend… Do you want to consummate this relationship?"

Frankie threw his head back in laughter, "Babe, that's a marriage thing." He pushed a strand of long blonde hair behind his girlfriends ear, "But any excuse to be with you." The dark haired boy grabbed Velvets keys off of one of the beach chairs to their right, "She won't mind, right?"

"Let's go" Lacey pulled Frankie up to his feet, both of them giggling. He threw the young girl over his shoulder, giving her a small pat on the butt as he made a bee line towards the car.

Alex turned his phone away from Jimmy, making sure his friend couldn't get a peek of who he was texting. Ironically, it was the same person Jimmy was currently whining about, his ex-girlfriend Becky Bayless.

"I just don't get it dude, I've done everything that girl has wanted me too, I turned my life around for her." Alex could probably recite all of Jimmy's pitches as to why he and Becky should still be together, just from the amount of times he's heard Jimmy ramble on about it.

He constantly brought up drugs. As long as Alex could remember, his friend Jimmy was the go to guy for mind altering substances. When they started smoking weed in the 7th grade, Jimmy started selling pot. When there wasn't enough money to be made, he moved on to bigger and badder things.

He had only known Jimmy to try everything once or twice, but it was his selling that annoyed his younger girl friend, although it was how she met possibly her best friend Cayden.

She didn't like the constant calls, having people she didn't know coming in and out of her house when Jimmy was over, and the overall sketchiness of every situation his so called 'job' got him into.

He had a point though, the minute Becky told him to stopped, he did. He really would have done anything that girl wanted him to at the drop of a dime. The thought only made Alex feel worse that he had not only gone on a date with the girl they were speaking of, but was currently texting her, planning a second date.

"Chicks" Alex shrugged, trying to drop the subject, but there was usually no stopping Jimmy once he got started. "I'd like to see another guy, treat her as good as I did, she'll come crawling back to me the minute he doesn't jump at her command."

"Yeah, whatever dude, you hungry?" Alex was by now getting fed up, although his friend didn't know, and Alex was planning on keeping it that way, he was 'the other guy', and as far as Alex could see, it didn't look like she had gone running back to Jimmy like he claimed she would.

"Nah, I'm good, let's just play" the longer haired boy tossed Alex an Xbox controller and the two sat in silence. He had picked up on his friends tone, and was slightly annoyed by Alex's lack of enthusiasm.

"You care if Chris comes to chill?" Alex broke the silence, after receiving a text message from his best friend. "No doubt" Jimmy nodded, slightly relived, knowing his sandy haired friend would not only understand how he felt, but also lighten the mood a little bit.

"Whuddup" Chris let himself in through the front door, greeting his two best friends as he slid on the couch next to Alex, grabbing the controller out of his hand. "My game" he declared as he started pressing buttons as if it was no big deal.

Out of the three of them, Chris was undoubtedly the master of video games, being good at just about every game the group ever played.

"How was the doctor, man?" Jimmy put his controller down in defeat, resting his feet on the long coffee table in front of him. "Nothing new, he just told me to get some rest and drink lots of fluids."

Chris closed his eyes and leaned back on Jimmy's couch, truth was, he still felt miserable, but he was so tired of just sitting around his house all day, he needed to be around his friends, even if he felt so weak.

"My mom asked Becky about you guys" Chris sighed, repositioning himself on the couch, he caught Alex giving him a dirty look when Jimmy perked up.

"When'd you see Becky?" Jimmy practically demanded, he looked like a deer in headlights. "At school… My mom picked me up" he suddenly understood the look Alex had shot him, and figured Jimmy must have been going on about Becky before he arrived, something that wasn't exactly unusual.

Chris explained himself, as request by Jimmy, while Alex played a solo round of video games, trying to tune out the conversation surrounding him. Maybe he should tell Chris about how he's started seeing the sophomore in question.

The young man debated it in his head, but opted not to, Chris would probably tell Jimmy anyway, Alex knew Chris couldn't keep anything from either of his two closets friends, he was to sincere, and …emotional to his friends.

Alex was wrong however; as Chris had been crushing on the girl either of the two boys couldn't get off of their minds. Although it was obvious how Jimmy felt about her, the others chose to keep it to themselves, mainly because they knew how Jimmy would react.

"Austin, put me down!" Cayden laughed as she struggled to get down from her boyfriends grasp. He had carelessly thrown the tiny girl over his shoulder as the two got out of the car at a near by club. "Austin, I'm serious! Everyone can see up my skirt" Cayden played up her boyfriends' protectiveness, knowing her comment would get him to bring her to the ground and it did.

It wasn't that Austin was over protective, but as far as he saw things, Cayden was _his_ girlfriend, if anyone wanted to look at her wrong, they would have to deal with _him_. "It's been a while since we went out like this, I didn't think you'd be down to come, you being all serious and stuff now." Austin wrapped an arm around his beautiful girlfriend, and kissed the top of her forehead, happy that she did decide to join him tonight, despite her newly acquired responsibility towards school.

"You obviously don't know me as well as you thought you did" Cayden mused as she pulled a tiny clear bag out of her bra, containing a few ecstasy pills, "you should know I still get down like the best of 'em."

The two stood in line to get into the packed club, Austin watched Cayden in awe, she looked so sexy tonight. His girlfriend usually had a tomboy charm to her, although she always looked pretty, tonight she looked like a woman.

Her hair fell loosely around her face, and looked so silky, and her body, which was usually covered in a t-shirt and cargo pants, looked incredible in a low cut tank top and tight black skirt. She seductively placed two of the pills on her tongue, pulling Austin's head towards her into a kiss.

She passed him one of the blue pills while the two exchanged saliva. Before either of them had noticed the line had been moving it was their turn to enter the establishment.

"IDs?" The giant bouncer spun a flash light and waited for the teenagers to present their identification cards.

Austin pulled both fakes from his wallet, out of his back pocket and handed them to the much bigger man. He shined his flash light on the cards, then up at the couples' faces. Cayden squinted at the bright light shining straight into her eye. "Dude, watch it" Austin reached out, lowering the bouncers light to his feet.

Cayden held back her smile; it was amazing how great of a boyfriend Austin could be sometimes. Sometimes she felt like she was his caretaker, but she could never forget how sweet he was towards her nonstop, he was always trying to be the perfect guy for her, and truth was, he didn't really need to try.

"Go on in" Austin accepted the two phony Ids back from the bouncer and held his girlfriends hand into the popular club; his fake had never failed him before.

"Lets dance" Cayden pulled her boyfriend onto the dance floor and spun around until her body met his, she moved to the pace of the music, keeping her figure as close to Austin as she possibly could.

Austin always saw a different side of Cayden that no body else ever did, not even their best friend, Jack. To most people she was a cool girl to sit back and kick it with, she was straight forward and there wasn't much she gave a fuck about, Austin excluded. While this was true, he knew the reasoning behind her ways, and that she did in fact, not only care, but worry about many things.

To Austin, she was unbelievably sexy, his girlfriend could be a wild party animal or the responsible shoulder he really needed to keep his life in order, she stood up for herself and didn't let people mess with her, she was his perfect girl.

The couple spent hours at the club together, dancing and drinking. They laughed and had a great time, it was a much needed night out for Cayden, who had been feeling stressed to say the least, the whole night she hadn't even thought of her conversation with Mr. Bischoff once.


	5. Chapter 5

Lacey and Velvet sat face to face at a small table in one of their favorite diners before school. Velvet slowly picked at her fruit parfait as she listened to Lacey gush about Frankie.

"We went to the gym yesterday and you should have seen him, he was all sweaty and so… hot, oh my god, you would have died. I would have jumped him right there if we weren't in public."

"Like that's ever stopped you before" Velvet smirked, "So you and Frankie have gotten like, super serious since he asked you to be official."

"I know, isn't it great?" The giddy blonde smiled, keeping her eyes fixed on her cell phone. "Look at these messages he sent me this morning, he's totally the sweetest."

Lacey tilted the phones small screen so that Velvet could read along while she scrolled threw her inbox. _'I'm so lucky to be with you' 'Can't wait to see how gorgeous you look today' 'You're the best baby.'_

Velvet was certainly surprised the texts had come from Frankie Kazarian, he didn't exactly seem like the type to go for over the top romance, but Lacey did have a certain charm over people, Frankie included.

Things with AJ had been going good, but a little to slow for Velvets liking, they hadn't even gone 'all the way' yet.

"Isn't he adorable?"

"Who would have thought Suicide was such a softy." Velvet joked, looking away from the phone and back at her breakfast.

"Well, what about AJ? What kind of cute text messages does he send you?" Lacey reached across the table grabbing her friend's blackberry but Velvet quickly snatched it back from the taller blonde's grip.

"AJ isn't really a fluffy love note guy."

"He'll come around, let's go" Lacey slid her oversized purse over her shoulder as the two girls walked arm and arm out the diner towards Velvets car.

Before opening the drivers side door, Velvet stopped, feeling her phone vibrate. _'Meet me in the senior parking lot. 5 minutes – AJ"_

She sighed as she re-read the straightforward text from her current boy toy, no pet names, or compliments, just a bland statement. Velvet couldn't help but be envious of the affection Frankie always showed towards Lacey.

"Did you hear Madison and Adam have been like…fucking?" Lacey broke the silence that had overcome the two since entering the car. "No!" Velvet gasped in awe, completely forgetting about her jealously.

"Yeah, I feel like super bad, he's totally leading Tiffany on." The taller blonde was always the one to put people's feelings first, surprisingly. A lot of people assumed she was a cold hearted bitch, but she was a child at heart.

"That's Madison for you, she's such a backstabbing slut" Velvet quickly ended the conversation, knowing she was right. Unlike Lacey, Madison didn't give a damn about anybody but herself, she may not have ever been friends with Tiffany but it wouldn't matter regardless if they were, Madison was as selfish as they come.

"Earth to Cayden" Jack waved his hand in front of the dark haired girls face.

"Yeah, what's up with you, Cay? You were spaced the fuck out in class." Austin pulled his girlfriend closer to him by her waist.

"It's called paying attention, Aus, try it some time" Her tone was light hearted but there was a bit of truth she was trying to relay to him.

"Since when do you pay attention in Bio?" Jack rolled his eyes, Cayden was so hot and cold sometimes, she went from one extreme to another.

At parties Cayden would be the first girl taking shots on top of the table or laying on the same table, letting Austin do lines off her stomach, but she went through phases where she acted like she'd been on the honor roll her whole life, but defiantly didn't have the grades for it.

"Mr. Long said I need to show more consistency."

"You could consistently do nothing, like me."

"Austin, baby, some of us care about our grades, right Jack?" "Whatever you say, Cayden." She laughed lightly pushing Jack on the arm.

"Well boys, I've got gym." Cayden kissed Austin lightly on the lips and ruffled his hair a little bit.

"Big money" he gave her a tap on the butt as she walked into the gym.

A wave of nervousness washed over the petite girl when she walked in to the locker room, she was a little surprised at how anxious she became. The routine had become an everyday thing for her.

She ducked into one of the stalls, careful that no one saw her. She waited quietly until all the other girls had left the locker room before she emerged from the bathroom stall.

One by one Cayden went through each of the gym lockers, taking whatever peaked her interest, money, iPods, cell phones, pills. She dropped all of the items in to her purse, and rolled up the thick wad of cash with a smile on her face.

Usually the young girl would go into the gym once she finished 'locker shopping', as she liked to call it, and participate in class but today her newly acquired cash was burning a hole in her pocket.

'_Meet me by the car, lets get fucked up'_ Cayden typed the words to her boyfriend quickly, knowing she wouldn't have to ask him twice. Austin would probably be waiting for her in the car by the time she got there, itching to leave.

Cayden did feel guilty about stealing from her fellow students, but neither she nor Austin had any income besides student welfare, and the temptation of all that money was stronger than her conscious.

Cayden pulled out of the school parking lot as Austin looked through all the goodies in his girlfriend's purse. "You hit the iPod jackpot, baby girl, tell me why every single rich mother fucker at our school's got an iTouch?" He joked, "Stop at the pawn shop, will ya?"

After everything was cashed in the pair had an even 500 dollars. "You're the best babe; I got it tomorrow, okay?" Although it wasn't for any reason that would be accepted by society, Cayden was sort of happy Austin at least found one reason to want to go to school, and that was a start.

The two shared a kiss, they had a perfect understanding of each other, most people wouldn't even be able to grasp how the pair worked, but they just…got one another.

"He's still here?" Cayden laughed noticing Jeff's car hadn't moved from this morning. "Better for us, he's holding" Austin held the door for his girl friend, as the two entered the small one bedroom apartment.

"Make yourself at home, Jeff" Cayden dropped her purse down on the table, taking a sea on Austin's lap.

The bright haired boy withdrew the milk carton from his lips. "Sup Cay, Aus? You're home early."

"This isn't your home" Cayden joked, but his attention wasn't focused on her, his eyes were glued to Austin's hands as he flipped through the thick stack of bills his girl friend had acquired at school.

"You sending some of that my way, homie?" Austin nodded, counting out two hundred dollars, "I need a few big boys." Cayden smiled, knowing tonight was going to be a good night. Big Boys or 80 mg OxyContin as the workers at the pharmacy preferred to call them, were Caydens favorite type of pill, due to them being the strongest.

"I don't cop OC's anymore, I can hook you up with a few bundles, it'll be cheaper anyway." Jeff said nonchalantly as he continued to help himself to the couple's refrigerator. "Heroin? I don't know Jeff, I—" "Sure" Austin slammed one hundred and fifty dollars on to the table.

Cayden got a little heated at her boy friend, it was obvious he heard her objecting, but he didn't seem to care. Unlike Austin, Cayden had never tried what most considered, 'the top of the mountain', Heroin.

She was a little bit nervous, the spunky brunette was usually down to try anything but she had seen the monster that the powerful drug turns people into, she didn't want her or Austin to go down that road, but before she could convince him to change his mind, he was already calming her into the idea.

"Come on babe, I've done it before, if it was as scary as you say, do you think I'd want you to do it? I'd never let anything bad happen to you, I promise." He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, Austin had easily changed her mind when he spoke, he was right. Cayden trusted Austin with anything, and if he said it was okay, he was probably right.

"Yo, Jeff. Can you set her up while I'm doing this?" Austin had already cut the circulation in his arm off with his belt, and he waited for his friend to come into their bedroom to help his girlfriend.

"She's never shot up before, and I'm a little busy" He explained when the older boy sat down on the bed. The couple both let the amber substance flow through their veins, Cayden with Jeff's assistance.

"Thanks dude" Austin bumped knuckles with his drug provider as he lay down in the bed he shared with his lady, pulling her toward him. She laid her head on his bare chest and smiled, feeling her eye lids get heavier as the seconds passed. Austin was right, she had nothing to be nervous about, and she felt better than she ever had.

The young boy muttered whispers to his girlfriend under his breath while he ran his fingers through her hair. "You're the best Cay, you know that. You're so gorgeous and smart, and cool."

She laid kisses all over his chest when he spoke, Austin always got more affectionate when he was high. She could hear his voice getting increasingly groggier, and she caught him nodding out for only seconds at a time.

"This shit is strong, babe, you wanna help me wake up a bit" he smirked pulling her directly on top of him and slowly unbuttoning her pants. She leaned forward putting pressure into her kiss, as the two continued to remove their clothes.

Jeff figured the two would probably start getting intimate sooner or later, opiates had a certain effect on men, where they can last way longer than they usually do, and Jeff knew Austin and Cayden loved to use the side effect to their full advantage. "I'm out" he called, knowing he wasn't going to get a response.

"Is something wrong?" Tiffany met up with Kelly in between their classes; the former looked awfully distraught and had a stressed look upon her face.

"Do you think I'm immature?" Kelly sighed, she looked to her friend waiting for a response, her eyes were lined with tears.

"Of course not"

"Chris does, he said we needed to talk after school today. What if he breaks up with me?"

Tiffany was shocked; the couple didn't seem to have any issues just the other night when she had hung out with the pair.

"What did he say?" She asked, truly concerned about her friend.

Kelly started to stammer as she tried to talk, and quickly pulled Tiffany into the bathroom where the two could talk in private, and so she could avoid the embarrassment of crying in front of everyone in the hallway.

"He told me he wasn't sure if he could be in a relationship with someone who has so much growing up to do, that he's not a kid anymore and he needs to be in a mature relationship. I'm going to his house after school to 'talk about it'."

The pretty blonde had streams of black running down her face as she sobbed. Tiffany took her friend into her small arms, and hugged her tightly. If Chris thought Kelly was immature, did Adam think the same about her? She had heard rumors that he and Madison had been hooking up, though she wasn't sure if it was true.

Tiffany was suddenly washed with worry that her crush may have had the same feelings as her friends boyfriend does. She felt bad for only thinking of herself, but she couldn't piece together any comforting words for her best friend while she was overcome with insecurities of her own.

Kelly slowly removed her head from Tiffany's shoulder, and wiped the smeared makeup from around her eyes. She sniffled as she tried to hold back even more tears, "I'll call you as soon as I leave his house to tell you what happened, please don't be busy in case I need consoling." Tiffany agreed as the two friends went their separate ways after leaving the bathroom.

She turned her walking into a light jog as the bell signaling she was late to class sounded. "Sorry I'm late" Tiffany smiled innocently to her art professor as she sank into the seat closest to the door.

Adam sent her a big smile once she turned her attention to him, his smile disappeared however, when she simply looked back at him nervously. She couldn't get Kelly's current troubles with Chris out of her mind, Adam was a lot older than her, he has to feel the same way Chris has been feeling about his girlfriend.

The blonde spent the remainder of her art class avoiding Adams glances, a hard task to do. He looked so cute today, he had his hair pulled back completely out of his face, and he was wearing his hockey jersey, a tradition the team does whenever they have a home game.

"Tiff…Tiffany…Tiffany, wait up" She heard Adam calling her name, and was tempted to ignore him, but she didn't have a reason too. He hadn't hurt her in anyway, it's not like he's her boyfriend, and for all she could tell, he may not have even slept with Madison, she was just being precautious. By the time she decided to turn and face him he was a little bit out of breath, but he was relieved that she was about to talk to him, thinking he may have done something wrong.

"I saved you a seat in art class, didn't want to sit with me today?" He joked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Adam was more than surprised when Tiffany moved his arm away from her and distanced herself a few steps from the boy. "Sorry" she said blankly, not looking up from the floor.

"Did I do something wrong?" He gently rested his hand on her shoulder, staring directly into her eyes, commanding her for an answer.

Tiffany felt butterflies in her stomach, and struggled not to just smile and tell him to forget it. The older boy made her weak in the knees and she enjoyed every minute they had spent together. Although they hadn't made anything official yet, Tiffany knew they were more than just friends and possibly heading towards something more serious, she had to know if she was right for him before either of them got too attached, she didn't want to end up like Kelly and Chris.

"No, of course not, you…you're great, I just don't know if I'm right for you. Are you sure you don't want someone more your age…someone like Madison?" The look on Adams face was all Tiffany needed to confirm that the rumors were true. He looked like a deer in headlights staring down at her, frozen.

It was true, Adam had been stringing both girls a long, but he had actual feelings for Tiffany, she was someone he could have fun with, without any pressure. The young blonde was somebody he could actually see himself in a relationship with, while Madison was like a toy for him. Since the once popular girl had metaphorically fallen off her high horse, she was desperate for Adam to be with her, she was like a 24/7 booty call, available whenever he pleased. He liked having the power over the girl, but would never consider dating her when he had something great started with such an amazing girl like Tiffany.

"If I wanted Madison, why would I spend all my time with you, and not her?" It was sort of a lie, Adam did spend a great deal of time with Tiffany, but he did make sure to save time for his fix of Madison every now and then. He could tell Tiffany knew he was right, she couldn't deny how committed he had been to her, driving her to school, taking her out, buying her things, the two weren't even dating and he has treated her better than any serious boyfriend she'd ever had.

"It's just Chris told Kelly he wanted –" He was quick to cut her off knowing what she was about to say, Adam, had spent an hour of his time the previous night on Chris' couch, listening to him yell at his girlfriend, "I'm not Chris, You're not Kelly, listen Tiff, We've been having fun together, and I don't have any doubts about you, don't worry, okay?" He kissed her on the forehead, then slid his arm back in its place around her shoulders, signifying the end of the conversation.

Tiffany rested her head on Adams strong chest as the two walked down the hallway together, feeling a little bit better than she had going into the conversation. Adam had reassured her that he didn't think she was immature, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, and they way he was currently parading her around the hallway made her think that there was nothing going on between him and Madison.

"Guess who?" Chills ran up Alex's spine when he heard the familiar voice from behind him, he turned around quickly, removing the female hands from his face. "Becky, what are you doing? We're in school."

"So?" Becky looked at him confused, sincerely taken aback from Alex's frightened response to her simply touching him.

"What if somebody sees us?" Alex was whispering at this point, with a worried expression on his face, he sighed.

"Who exactly don't you want to see us together?" The brunette quickly assumed the worst that the man she had recently been dating was already cheating on her, a wave of realization washed over her however, when she realized why Alex must have been so nervous about being together at school.

"You haven't said anything to Chris or Jimmy, have you?" She had her arms crossed, and looked even more irritated than she did only seconds ago when she thought he had been two timing her.

He shook his head, a little bit embarrassed he couldn't man up for the whole 2 minutes it would have taken to confess his new relationship to at least Chris. "I can't do it Becky, Jimmy's like my best friend, he's gonna be heartbroken."

Her angry expression softened a little bit hearing Alex's concern towards his friend, it was out of character for Alex to put someone else's feelings before his own but Becky loved it when he showed that he was an actual compassionate human being.

"Well maybe you could just tell Chris? We can go on that double date we talked about, with Kaitlyn!"

"I don't know Becky; maybe we should just keep things low key, yanno? Let's not tell anyone just yet, we're not even that serious."

He could tell the last part of his sentence stung for the girl to hear, and he felt bad as soon as he said it, but he couldn't comfort her here at school. As much as he liked Becky, Jimmy was still his friend, he did feel guilty about dating her behind his back, but to rub it in his face would be even worse.

"I'll text you later, okay?" He put his fist out for her to bump with her own; she accepted it weakly and sighed as he walked away.

Becky didn't want to have to keep her relationship with Alex a secret, she understood that he didn't want to hurt Jimmy's feelings but what's going to happen if her and Alex became serious about each other, Jimmy's feelings were going to get hurt eventually, Alex needed to get it over with.

As if the two had perfect timing, she spotted Lacey Von Erich pinned up against her locker by her boyfriend Frankie Kazarian. Unfortunately for Becky, the older blonde's locker was only a few away from her own and was always a witness to the in between class PDA seminars the two put on for everyone passing them in the halls.

Only today Becky couldn't take her eyes off of the make out session a few feet away from her, how long would it take before Alex would want to kiss her in the hallway, or even hold her hand in the cafeteria. She tore her eyes from the couple, and slammed her locker closed; she had to get Alex to tell his friends about them.

"Where do you think we should take the girls tonight?" Frankie looked at his friend AJ, who was sitting in his passenger seat, as he pulled out of the Rink's parking lot. The two boys had thought up an idea to take the girls on a date night for dinner later on to celebrate their big win today at the game.

AJ shrugged as he continued to stare out the window "I don't know, somewhere nice?"

Frankie was AJs best friend, but the shorter haired man sometimes hated hanging out with him and his girlfriend Lacey. The pair was so over the top with their affection towards each other, it would be impossible for him and Velvet to keep up.

AJ really wanted to take things slow with Velvet though, it was just more his style, so the added pressure of being surrounded by Lacey and Frankie, who can't seem to keep their hands off each other for more than 5 minutes at a time, just made him feel uncomfortable.

"I'll find us a place, does Velvet like Italian?" AJ shook his head, "She doesn't eat carbs."

"Whatever, we're going to Angelica's, it's classy enough, bring your wallet though, I'm not picking up your tab again" Frankie joked as he dropped his friend off at his house.

"Yo…Yo Age" he unrolled his window while AJ was still insight, "I'll pick you up at seven, dress nice." His friend nodded towards him before disappearing into his house.

"Chris" Kelly extended her arms and wrapped them around her boyfriend as he opened the door to let her into his family's house.

"Kelly, what are you doing?" He peeled the tiny girl's arms off of each of his sides and dropped her hands once she was removed from his body. "I invited you over here to talk about something that's really been bothering me; can you be serious for like five minutes?"

Kelly felt her eyes start to water already, she had screwed up their talk and she wasn't even in the actual house yet.

"Why are you crying? This is exactly what I was talking about last night Kelly, you're sixteen years old, and for my sake you need to start acting like it."

His words only made her tears come faster; she lowered her head trying to hide her sadness from her boyfriend. "I-I-I can't help it" she tried to push the words out of her mouth, but her throat was slowly closing up.

"Chris… Everything okay over there?" "Kelly's just upset Mom, it's nothing." She felt her heart speed up when Chris grabbed her hand, "we should probably take this upstairs, maybe we can work something out."

Her stomach sunk while he guided her upstairs. Was he really only looking for sex? The couple has had sex before, that went without saying, but he had never forced it upon her for their relationships sake.

She felt the tears rolling down her face at a steady pace. Kelly sat on Chris' bed, and started unbuttoning her top. "Babe, what are you doing? We're in the middle of a fight and all you can think about is sex?" Chris stood over her puzzled, he ran his hands through his short blonde hair, "I don't know Kelly, this is really childish."

"Isn't this what you want?" Her words were barely coherent through her sobs, as she completely removed her shirt, then lifted her tank top over her head.

"I'm trying to be mature for you, baby" The blonde girl slipped out of the tiny skirt she was wearing, so she was left in only her bra and panties.

"You think this is mature Kel? I'm trying to save our relationship, and you're in tears taking all of your clothes off, you need to learn how to act like an adult if we're going to continue to date."

"You mean…you're not breaking up with me?" her heavy sobs slightly let up as she looked her boyfriend in the eyes for the first time since arriving at his house.

"I wasn't planning on it, but you're gonna have to grow up Kelly, I'm not trying to make you upset but babe, I'm an adult, I've got college and work, and you want me to come drive you to Tiffany's house in the middle of the afternoon, and I don't mind spending money on you babe, but you need to earn some cash of your own. I'm not asking you to change, just…I don't know, I've been thinking really hard about how to say this and it's coming out all wrong, but can you please just try? I'll help you find a job, I'll teach you to drive, I'll do whatever I need to help you, I know I'm older than you, and I can't expect you to keep up with me but you're not a little kid either, Kel, So do we understand each other?"

Kelly had sat through Chris' speech in complete silence; she had never heard him speak so seriously about something the entire time they had been dating. She was thankful he didn't call her here to break up, and she was willing to become more of the girl Chris wanted her to be. She nodded and smiled at him, leaning in for a kiss.

He held her in his arms and continued to kiss her, lowering her body down to the bed, "Thank you babe, it means a lot to me." She continued to nod and smile at her boyfriend, lying underneath him while he kissed all over her chest. "Put your clothes on, my parents are cooking, you can stay for dinner."

"AJ won't be able to keep his hands off of you tonight, Vel." Lacey admired her friend as she spun around, modeling her cocktail dress.

"You think so? It's not too fancy is it?" She looked herself up and down in the full body mirror in front of her; admittedly she looked her best tonight. Even if it was a bit dressy there was no way she wasn't going to be seen like this tonight.

"It's perfect, how about me?" Lacey let Velvet examine her outfit as the two waited for their men to arrive at Velvets lavish home. "10" she smiled, taking out her digital camera to take a few photos of her and her best friend for facebook.

"How romantic is it that the guys are taking us out to an expensive restaurant tonight?" Lacey scanned through the pictures on her friend's camera, pointing out which ones she liked and which ones she didn't.

"Hmm, Well I'm sure it was Frankie's idea, AJ doesn't do romance." Velvet sighed, finally admitting that even though her and AJ had yet to even declare themselves official, they had fallen into a rut.

"Well once he see's you tonight, you might as well start calling yourself Juliet." Lacey tried to lighten her friend's spirit, she had been in a weird mood all day, and Lacey finally understood why.

Once the boys arrived they made their way to Angelica's and were escorted to a private table all the way in the back of the restaurant.

Velvet listened to AJ drown on about winning the hockey game earlier today, "They don't call me the phenomenal one for nothing" he smiled, wrapping his arm around Velvet.

She smiled, leaning towards him, planting a kiss on his lips, he returned the action with a small peck, and turned back towards Frankie.

However, Lacey and Frankie were in their own little world, the couple was sitting practically on one another's laps, staring into each other's eyes, in a deep conversation, as deep as the two of them could handle at least.

This is exactly why AJ didn't want to double date with Frankie and his girlfriend, the two were so lovey dovey and he didn't want to try and compete with his friend, knowing he's going to come out short.

"AJ, do you like me?" Velvet was always one to be outspoken, and was completely straightforward with everything, she wasn't the type to 'play games' with guys, and she certainly wasn't going to waste her time with someone who wasn't interested in her.

"Why would you even have to ask me that? Of course I like you."

"It's just, you act like we're just friends, and you don't send me cute text messages, or kiss me in public, we haven't even had sex, AJ, like… I don't know, are we just friends?"

He sighed, taking Velvet by her hand, "Come outside with me" he intertwined his fingers with her as they walked towards Frankie's car in the parking lot, "Velvet, I like to take things slow, don't think I'm not interested, because that couldn't be further from the truth. We started off a little fast, and I don't usually do that, but I liked you too much to hold anything back, but I just don't want to mess anything up with you, understand?"

He took a deep breath as they arrived at the sleek black Excursion, and rested his body against the hood of the car, pulling Velvet towards him. The two shared a long kiss before AJ began to speak once again, "I'll try to show you more affection, I promise."

Adam felt guilty as he watched Madison's naked body sway back and forth as she walked into the bathroom attached to his bedroom, shutting the door. Just earlier that day he had promised Tiffany that nothing was going on between him and Madison. He couldn't help it though, as much as he valued his relationship with Tiffany, it just wasn't moving fast enough, and he understood, she's only 15, but he had to get a little action somewhere, and Madison was more than willing.

He rolled out of bed and pulled a pair of plaid boxer shorts onto his own naked body. "Hey Maddy, I'm gonna go make something to eat." He wanted to make it clear to her that the two were done messing around for the night.

Adam pulled a TV dinner out of his refrigerator and tossed it into the microwave, watching it as it slowly cooked. "I think I'm just gonna go, call me later?" Madison emerged into the kitchen, fully dressed, holding her purse and her car keys.

He nodded leaning down to kiss her goodbye, "okay, see you later" and turned back to watching his food revolve inside the microwave.

Okay, see you later? Madison made a mental sigh, it was so clear Adam was just using her, she was friendless, not retarded, but as of right now, he was all she had. Velvet still hasn't talked to her, and Lacey has been so wrapped up in her new group that Madison can't even remember the last time she had spoken with her friend.

She let herself out of Adams house and into the driver's side of her car, she truly missed Velvet and Lacey, even if Velvet wasn't mad at her, the two had been so preoccupied with the boys Madison herself had suggested to the girls, that she would still be the odd one out.

"America runs on Dunkin, how many I help you?" Jack spoke into his headset while he was working. He plugged the customer's order onto the screen and told them to drive around.

"EVANS!" he turned around to see Brian, Austin and Cayden walking into the coffee stop, he sighed and muttered under his breath, "not at work, for the love of god."

"What's up guys?" He nodded to the group and went back to work, hoping they would get their coffee's and leave although he loved Austin and Cayden, the two could cause a good deal of trouble, something he didn't want at work, and he had grown very far from Brian in the past few months.

"You got a break dude? Come sit with us." He recognized Brian's voice, and actually debated taking a break just so he could shut them up and get them out of here before his boss says anything.

He realized it was too late for that, however, when his boss approached him about his three 'friends'. "Maybe you should take your break now; they seem to want you over there."

"I'm so sorry, I'll ask them to leave" His boss shook his head and told him not to worry about it, "Half hour, kid."

When Jack approached the three he realized how fucked up they all actually were, Cayden eyes were fluttering open and shut as she tried to keep her head up, Austin and Brian were struggling just to keep their eyes open.

"Looks like you guys have been up to no good" he smiled, sliding in the open chair next to Brian.

"Just been hanging out, I got a little something for ya, if you want it." Austin offered Jack, who in return raised his eye brow.

"Is she okay?" The boys all turned to look at Cayden, her head was cocked down and her eyes were closed, "Cay, wake up, we're in public… She's fine." Austin was hard to understand himself, his words were slurring together and Jack was expecting him to fall asleep any second now.

"What? Are you guys all pilled out?" Jack didn't wait for them to answer his question before accepting Austin's offer, "Sure, I'll pop a few right here, if you've got 'em."

"Nah, dude that's sketch, and we don't got pills. I can leave a few bags and a rig in the bathroom for you."

Jack lowered his voice and leaned in closer to Austin, "Heroin? Dude, are you serious?"

Cayden flashed Jack the inside of her purse, letting him take a look at the small wax bags and the needles she had tossed about inside. Jack couldn't believe Austin had actually let Cayden shoot dope, he was usually overprotective, he was shocked that he would allow her to do such a thing.

"Maybe later bros…I gotta head back to work." He slipped away from the table, telling Austin he'd catch up with him when he got out of work. Jack had a feeling his friend didn't quite understand that heroin was no joke, there was probably no way of getting into Austin's head.

Jack just hoped Austin would be careful, and make sure Cayden was doing the same, but there was no reason for Jack not to join in on the festivities tonight.


End file.
